Australian Museum Acquires Rare Stephen's Banded Snake Specimen from Roadkill

The Australian Museum's Herpetology Department recently obtained a specimen of the threatened Stephen's Banded Snake from the Border Ranges region between New South Wales and Queensland. The snake was found deceased after a vehicle collision and preserved by a local naturalist until museum staff could collect it. This species, first documented in 1869 by the museum's inaugural curator Gerard Krefft, faces habitat loss pressures and potential impacts from recent bushfires. The acquisition highlights the museum's reliance on public contributions to document biodiversity, as many specimens come from citizen reports of roadkill. The institution maintains both this new addition and the original holotype specimen described over 150 years ago.